I don't have access to cable or dsl. My friend down the
> road (we are in a rural hilly area north of Knoxville TN)
> does have cable. It stopped about 1/2 mile from my house. I
> am exploring some way to network with his house to get
> higher speed. I discussed it with the cable company and was
> informed that due to cost they would not be extending it my
> way any soon and the person I talked to didn't see any
> problem with the sharing, since they would/could not
> provide it.
Extending CATV about 1/2 mile is not a big deal. At worst, you'll need a line amplifier. Instead of connecting to your friend, is there someone near the end of the cable that can be convinced to attach a connection?
I am still looking into some type of wire connection, it is
> about 1.2 miles.
Lots of ways to do 1.2 miles. The easiest is 2 twisted pair and a pair of SDSL modems. Not all SDSL modems will work. I have a list somewhere. The catch is that you may be limited to about 3Mbits/sec thruput.
I am going to check with BellSouth about
> getting a dry pair that is looped out here somewhere. If it
> goes to the CO, it will be too far to be of any use. I am
> about 10 mitles from there. But from what I have read,
> this is probably a no-go.
Good luck. We can't get dry pairs in SBC country at all. Totally impossible including alarm companies. I've tried. All drops go via the CO. Sorry.
I am also going to check with the utility company about
> stringing my own cable. Don't know how that will go, or
> what type of expense I am looking at, but asking is free.
I've done it for short distances without permission. They don't like it but it's too big a bother to tear them all down. As long as it's done professionally, they don't seem to care. I've also strung fiber legally on the former Pacific Bell poles. The cost was nominal (about $2/pole) to the utilities, but the insurance costs was really awful. Something like $20,000/year for $10million in liability. That's how they keep independents off the poles legally.
That leaves me wireless. I can get line of sight from the
> top of the ridge behind me. I own the property but there is
> no power anywhere around.
No problem. Most wireless repeaters only burn about 5 watts maximum. A gel cell and a solar charger can handle that.
The idea of the passive repeaters
> sound really good.
No. They don't work. Please re-read whatever I wrote. The beamwidth necessary at both ends is very small. The reflector will by necessity be VERY big.
And I see posts all over the place
> recommending them, but your math and reasoning looked
> pretty sound at ruling it out in the basic case.
> Are these people recommending something that just sounds good but they
> have not actually tried to get it to work?
I've gotten it to work under limited conditions. One used a 4ft diamter dish at each end. The reflector was a solid piece of 3x6ft aluminium sheet metal. Losses were horrible, but it was good enough. Big problem in the morning when water condensed on the reflector and screwed up the signal.
In my case I would estimate 1 mi from the relay to my friend
> (A) and . 5 mi from the relay to me (B). I used the page you
> referred to to do some calculations, but am not sure if I
> did things correctly. If I wanted a passive repeater to work,
> how much power would I need if I had 24dbi antennas all
> around? Is it feasible with amplifiers?
Maybe. Let's see your calculations and I'll check them. However, I would prefer you re-post your question in alt.internet.wireless so I can deal with it at my leasure.
How about if I put a bi-directional amplifier between the
> relay antennas and powered that with a battery/solar
> charger. That should require such little power I don't
> think it would be a problem. A 250mw doesn't seem too expensive.
A 250mw (24dBm) amplifier at each end will improve the signal over the typical +15dBm radio by about 9dB. That's quite a bit and will help. However, the beamwidth will kill you no mattery how much power you have. A 6degree beamwidth 24dBi antenna at 0.6 miles (3200ft) will be over 300ft wide. Got a 300ft wide reflector? Cut the area in half and you lose 3dB. Half again, another 3dB. Do it often enough and you have no signal left.